Tonight, The World’s Bestdelivered what is the biggest surprise of the entire season — Dimash Kudaibergen quitting before the finale.

What happened? Well, at the end of his sensational performance tonight, we saw him make the decision to depart, leaving Daneliya Tuleshova and Lydian still in the competition in his category. His logic was fairly simple — he wanted to ensure that the younger talents won. Was it a shock? Absolutely, especially since he called this one of his favorite venues. He could’ve easily won this category, as well as the entire competition.

Yet, sometimes you have to do things within the music world that not everyone is going to agree with, but they feel best for you. Clearly, Dimash thought that this was the right decision for him to make in this moment and we respect him for it. We’ve loved getting to see him and his talent throughout much of the season; yet, we are sad about losing an opportunity to see him one more time. Before The World’s Best, we had not been exposed all that much to what he can do, which includes singing in several octaves and delivering something that felt theatrical and awe-inspiring. Sure, there’s always YouTube and other venues, but there’s something magic about seeing someone in a live-TV format.

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As Dimash left the show, it was abundantly clear that the judges were far from pleased with the decision. As a matter of fact, RuPaul and Faith Hill were downright upset about it and felt like he wasn’t honoring his overall commitment to the show. Did he let some people on the show down? Probably, and we also wonder whether or not Lydian (who ended up advancing to the finale) felt almost like he got the place by default.

Alas, this is what it is — Dimash is a brilliant performer and we do think that he will do just fine. Beyond that, we actually think that his move tonight will earn him further admiration from his fans who appreciate his sense of self-sacrifice and his desire to be kind to others. Even though this may be a competition, he may not have seen it as a competitive environment. Maybe he doesn’t need the money that would come on the other side of this, or maybe his own happiness is so much more important than that in the first place. We cannot read his mind, but we certainly wish him the best. We also applaud him for standing by what he thought was right.

For those wondering, RuPaul certainly didn’t seem to wish him the best on his way out the door — he did not applaud or celebrate him anywhere near as warmly as the other two judges did.